Is recycling green?

There is opposition to the recycling movement. However, it is almost seen as heresy. After all, recycling must be good for the environment, mustn’t it? The earth has scant resources and any we can put back into use must be preserving the earth for future generations.

There is logic in this fairly basic thinking. Some resources are scarce and there is potential to use up our resources to an extent - the resource will always exist. However, the logic is flawed in regards to the most common materials we recycle are generally abundant:

1. Asphalt concrete
2. Aluminium
3. Newspapers
4. Plastic bottles
5. Glass bottles
6. Glossy magazines

Therefore there must be a further rationale for stating that recycling is green. The theory is that recycling saves energy.

If we consider paper recycling then there is strong evidence that there are significant energy savings, as much as 4000 KWh of electricity per ton¹⁾²⁾. There is also a reduction in the amount of water used, it saves trees from being felled, and a reduction in air pollutants - namely sulfur dioxide. However, recycling produces large quantities of sludge (technically paper fibre bio-solids) which could have an environmental impact unless disposed of properly. Around 20% of the tonnage of recycled paper will typically end up as paper-making sludge.

Some people may think that paper made from trees logged in sustainable forests is not ecologically a bad thing. They may also assume that virgin paper is of a higher quality than recycled paper. However, these thoughts are myths according to many people.

“There is nothing wrong with using trees - a renewable resource - as a crop for paper”

Trees have only been used on a large scale for papermaking since the second half of the 19th century. Provided they are grown in a sustainable and ecologically responsible way, trees are a valuable source of raw material for papermaking …. but there are many areas where trees are grown as a ‘cash crop’, often in mono-culture fashion (one species of tree). Fertilisers, herbicides, insecticides and other pesticides are used to ensure a ‘healthy’ crop with consequent damage to the environment ….and there is a limit to how much natural or original forest we want to see turned over to ‘farmed’ forest ….and in areas where clear-felling is practised, it can lead to soil erosion.

Don’t trust the label ‘made from sustainable forests’ at face value. To be sure, specify papers made with FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) certified content.

“Recycled papers are always of poor quality”

The quality of recycled paper (as well as new paper) has benefited from great improvements in papermaking technology over the last three decades. Quality control is almost invariably computerised and subject to the strictest testing and checking. Many recycled coated and office papers are now indistinguishable from virgin equivalents, not just in their performance, but even in their appearance. There are obviously still some uncoated grades with a more uneven surface structure that will still have to be treated with a degree of caution. Should there be any doubt about a paper’s performance, advice should be sought from the printer or merchant.

BBC - Environmental Myths

Interestingly, aluminium recycling is considered to be extremeley energy efficient. Despite aluminium recycling being an option in the UK for many years (decades even), currently Britons recycle only 48 per cent of aluminium cans. This fares very poorly against Norway’s 93 per cent. Apparently the UK could save around 168000 tonnes of CO2 emissions each year if we recycled our aluminium cans. In terms of available resources, the main raw material used for making aluminium, bauxite, is being mined at a rate if around 190,000 tonnes per annum (and increasing) with a worldwide reserve of around 25-30,000,000 tonnes. Therefore we are not going to run out soon but with recycling aluminium requiring 95% less energy than manufacturing new aluminium the argument for recycling is strong.

Aluminium is the most cost effective material to recycle. All the scraps left over from the aluminium production process can be melted down and used again and again.

Recycling 1kg of aluminium saves up to:

• 6kg of bauxite
• 4kg of chemical products
• 14kWh of electricity

RecycleNow.com - Why recycling matters

Asphalt is a product of the refinement of crude oil. Therefore, for as long as we rely upon oil to provide us with energy, in the forms of kerosene (for aeroplanes), petroleum spirit (for cars), diesel fuel (for cars and lorries), and liquefied petroleum gas (for cooking and domestic heating, but increasingly in some cars), we are not going to run out of asphalt. Also, because the world increasingly requires more oil to meet its energy needs asphalt supplies are not a problem but the price has increased to mirror the increasing price of crude oil - from $1 a gallon in December 06 to $2.10 in July 08. There was a jump in 2006 to $1.72 that was not correlated to the price of oil. This means that despite there being a large supply of asphalt the world’s demand for asphalt is large.

Asphalt is primarily used in road construction. In many parts of the world roads need constant repairs. Rather than filling landfills with asphalt, asphalt recycling allows for the asphalt to be re-used.

The recycling of plastics and glass is more complicated as there are many different types. Typically before recycling takes places the materials must be sorted. Energy savings for glass are probably around 5-30%, but with plastics as much as 70%.

Just 7% of the two million tonnes of plastics waste created each year in the UK is recycled, experts estimate.

Because of the variety of plastic types and the cost of recycling them, many councils have been slow to introduce comprehensive plastics recycling schemes.

Progress is being made - but many households keen to recycle are still finding the situation frustrating.

BBC - The tough problem of plastics

The sheer number of different plastics is confusing and acts as a barrier to recycling.

Glass recycling has a long history in the UK, with the first bottle banks arriving in 1977. There are now over 50,000 bottle banks in the UK³⁾, all of which encourage people to separate the types of glass into green, clear, and brown.

Recycled glass is put to many uses, saves landfill space, and saves energy.

Recycling seems to be universally good news:

• Saves energy
• Saves landfill space
• Preserves natural resources

However, does this win-win-win scenario deceive us? After all, surely it would be better not to have the need to recycle in the first place? Most glass bottles can be easily re-used⁴⁾. A small cash incentive to return them to the shops rather than to send them off for recycling would achieve this. Then there is all the superfluous usage of plastics in packaging and the wastefulness of plastic carrier bags from shops.

In conclusion, I believe that recycling is inherently green - but it would be much greener if we did not use a resource to start with.